ABSTRACT

This paper draws upon research in the UK debt advice sector to consider the role played by the credit referencing sector in shaping how UK society is ‘governed by debt.’ In response to existing literature within cultural economy on the ‘governmentality of the credit file,’ the paper draws upon two images of the ‘debt trails’ concept to foreground the hopeful futures, shaped by and mediated through relationships with intimate others, that are conjured and articulated by debtors. It describes in this respect two distinct ‘imaginaries’ that take hold in debtors’ speculative practices; that of a stable household anchored in a strong or improved credit file, and that of a household that is able to manage the ‘hard edges’ of ‘priority’ debt enforcement. While the latter marks a distinct limit for the ‘power’ located in the credit referencing sector, the paper finishes by noting how changes in income and household budgets are re-shaping this speculative landscape.

抽象的

本文借鉴了英国债务咨询部门的研究成果，来考虑信用咨询部门在塑造英国社会“债务管理”方式中所扮演的角色。为了回应文化经济学中有关“信用档案的政府性”的现有文献，本文借鉴了“债务踪迹”概念的两幅图像，以显示由与亲密他人的关系所塑造和通过与他人的亲密关系塑造的有希望的未来并由债务人明确表示。在这方面，它描述了两个不同的“假想者”，它们抓住了债务人的投机行为。稳定在强大或改进的信用档案中的稳定家庭的债务，以及能够管理“优先”债务执行的“硬边”的家庭的债务。尽管后者标志着信贷参考领域中“权力”的明显限制，